Obama Judicial Choice Is Urged to Withdraw

WASHINGTON — In a setback for the White House, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has determined that Michael P. Boggs, an embattled judicial nominee from Georgia, does not have the support to clear the committee, effectively killing his nomination.

“He doesn’t have the votes,” said Mr. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont.

Mr. Boggs, a state judge who was nominated by President Obama for a district court seat in the state, quickly ran into opposition from Democrats and liberal activists for his support for the Confederate flag and his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion as a state lawmaker.

Mr. Leahy said he based his conclusion on conversations with members of the committee, and he signaled that Mr. Boggs should withdraw, as other nominees had in the past when rejection became inevitable. Mr. Boggs becomes the first of Mr. Obama’s judicial nominees to fall to Democratic resistance since Senate rules were changed last year to limit filibusters against presidential nominees.

Mr. Boggs — who was included as part of a package deal between the White House and Georgia’s two Republican senators to fill a half-dozen longstanding court vacancies in the state — was grilled by skeptical Democrats at a May confirmation hearing, and was pressed to answer additional questions in writing, even as more information surfaced that Democrats found troubling.

"I think many people decided against him after the hearing," said Mr. Leahy, who has informed Georgia’s two senators — Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson — that the nomination cannot make it to the floor despite the president’s support.

Image

Michael P. BoggsCreditJohn Disney/The Daily Report

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Obama retained his confidence in Mr. Boggs. “Ultimately, the president believes that Judge Boggs has the qualifications necessary to serve in that very important role,” Mr. Earnest said.

Whether to withdraw is traditionally a decision that is left to an individual nominee, and Mr. Boggs’s first formal opportunity to pull back his nomination would not come until the Senate convenes in November for the postelection lame-duck session. His nomination will expire at the end of the year with the conclusion of the 113th Congress, and the White House would then face a decision on whether to renominate him, which seems unlikely.

Leaders of groups that have fought the nomination for months urged Mr. Boggs to step aside.

“Boggs’s record of support for discriminatory and callous measures affecting the lives of women, communities of color, and L.G.B.T. Americans during his time in the state legislature makes clear that he is unfit to serve as a federal judge,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of Naral Pro-Choice America. “His nomination has faced an unprecedented wave of opposition from the moment of its announcement, and he should withdraw his name from consideration.”

The strong reaction to Mr. Boggs created a political problem for Democrats, who were not eager to reject a nomination made by a president of their own party, but who also did not want to alienate women and minorities in an election year, particularly in Georgia, which has competitive races for Senate and governor.

Even as Mr. Boggs stalled at the Judiciary Committee, other judges nominated in the agreement with Mr. Chambliss and Mr. Isakson have moved forward. Two appellate court judges from the original agreement have already been confirmed, and senators are scheduled to vote on one of the other district court nominees immediately upon returning in November.

Democrats are hopeful that the Boggs rejection does not cause their deal with the Georgia senators to unravel. They say that Mr. Chambliss and Mr. Isakson s have so far given no indication that they will try to derail the remaining judicial candidates, clearing the way for other confirmations before the end of the year.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Judicial Choice Is Urged to Withdraw. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe